So we are now into June 2015 and 2015 has been pretty much the same year in terms of repayments. I have continue all of my repayments and now have an additional 6 months of repayments all showing green ticks. So how did 2015 start?
In January I started my Credit Addiction off with a present for my Son, a iPhone 5C, I went for o2 as they offered a special price on reconditioned phones, that worked for me, it works out about £25 a month.
I took the decision to start another project, on top of the current repayments, I want to keep my debt down, even though my credit card with Capital One only has a £300 limit I want to keep the debt down, for the past few years it's been up to it's limit, so this year I am going to start being more debt aware and keep that down to zero to avoid interest.
In February time I receive a letter inviting me to apply for a Vanquis credit card, now it could be because I applied last year but wasn't accepted, or could it be from one of those mailing lists when you start getting accepted for things? It didn't say Guaranteed approval or anything but it invited me to apply, so being weak I do, but after sending the application in, I wait and wait for the phone call to say I have been accepted, but it doesn't come.
A few weeks into March I get another invite from them??? Odd, I put it into the bin, as Vanquis ask you to wait six months anyway. Then I get an invite from Aqua. Were these invites coming because i had previously applied and was rejected or were the Credit Reference agencies beginning to sell my details as someone who has started to rebuild their credit rating?
I applied with Aqua and if you read part one of my Journey, you may remember I was offered a Higher rate, the same happened and I ticked all the boxes and applied. I didn't have to wait too long for the decline letter to come through…
In April, having not taken out anything other than the iPhone 5C for my Son, I get another invite from Aqua and Vanquis.
I also receive a new invite it's from APS, the people who do the Prepaid Master Card, but this letter was different. They are offering me a Credit Card with them. I didn't even know they did a credit card, but it has an invite card and tells me that I need to use the invite code on the website so I do.
I enter my information and the application crashes a few times, ahhh.
Eventually I manage to get it work (next day) and I get approved with a £100 credit limit (with a chance of a increase within 6 months.
I don't get over excited, I have signs of approvals only to end up rejected, but the card arrives and then the pin and I manage finally to get a second credit card.
In my other blog post you will see that I am pretty addicted to applying for credit, I don't want to abuse credit, I now fell after 24 solid months of 100% up to date repayments I am getting more responsible.
My credit rating with Credit Expert has gone up too, I am now rated as 499 (just 61 points) away from Poor, my Equifax is on 228 (not too sure) what's needed for the next level.
The way I see things now, I am one third of the way through. Getting accepted is great, repaying that trust is even better.
I am going to be very sensible however, next year (around April time) I can end some of these mobile phone contracts, haven't yet decided if I am going to keep EE or O2 for my mobile, of course, the iPhone 7 should be out around September 2016 time, so I will choose one of these companies to get my new contract with, but my contract for the 5S and iPad Air will expire and I will end these allowing me to save some money. I will of reached the half way stage by then, I will of seen a couple of defaults drop off by then too which is also good. The Big years are 2017 and 2018 and there will be just a couple of very small defaults to watch vanish in 2019.
My journey is now a third of the way in. I hope it gives you a full understanding that even though it feels and looks impossible, it can be achieved. I finally have a new credit card, all be it with a very small credit limit, but my current accounts are all still opened and I am keeping up all repayments without fail.
So if you are struggling with your credit rating, ensure everything that isn't defaulted is paid, give it 12 full months, then try a mobile phone or Catalogue (I haven't tried a catalogue) yet anyway…
I will make monthly updates for my Journey from here on in, to help with so much text!
